


A Fate Worse than Death

by ImaginAries



Category: Dragon Age, Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Drabble, F/M, Gen, Grey Wardens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-24
Updated: 2013-02-24
Packaged: 2017-12-03 10:38:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/697363
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ImaginAries/pseuds/ImaginAries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Short drabble for my fem!Cousland, Saorise (pronounced Sear-sha) and Nathaniel Howe. Takes place during the scene where Nate is captured at Amaranthine and the Warden must decide what to do with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Fate Worse than Death

**Author's Note:**

> A page's worth of paraphrasing a scene of the game, giving a little more insight on the characters' thought process and memories when it comes to meeting face to face.

Nathaniel Howe could scarcely believe who stood before him. His father was dead because of her- and when he lunged at the bars in anger shouting at the auburn haired Warden-Commander, his eyes stung with unshed tears.   
“You?! Out of anyone in all of Thedas it is you standing here with a smug look on your face! This estate _belonged to the Howes_! I-- I ..just..I just..”

The young woman kept any flicker of sympathy at bay; her expression was a hard one.   
“You just _what_? Thought you might avenge the father who burned my home, murdered my family, and ordered his men to slay, beat, and rape innocents?”

The rogue could not answer. Saorise was right. Of course she was. He was branded a pariah for the sins of his father. All for naught. There was a time when the Couslands and the Howes had been the closest of allies. While it had been the Teyrn and Arl’s dream to see their youngest children wed for a solid union, Saorise and Nathaniel had had other plans. She had no interest in Nathaniel’s younger brother, and for this he had been glad. Despite their past secret rendevous and private, romantic interludes, however, the present held a much heavier memory.

“I..only wanted to take something as reminder of my family. I’ve lost them all. I know not what has become of Thomas, or of Delilah.” Nathaniel relented as he shamefully stared to the floor. Pride, however, would not have him defeated. “If you would kill me, then do so. It is a kinder end than what I now face out in the world.”

“I _could_.” Saorise replied curtly, briskly clipping to the iron-barred door and worked the key within the lock. When it swung open she did her best to ignore the small light of hope within Nathaniel’s eyes.

They had been friends, once. They had been lovers. There had been an entire past tucked away into a dark corner that had once promised a bright future. It all changed when Nathaniel had vanished without a word.

And when Arl Rendon Howe came the night before Teyrn Cousland was meant to leave with him to Ostagar.

It ended when Saorise had to run, dragged from her parents, watching the flames consume every bit of Highever that Saorise called home.

“I will not kill you, Nathaniel.” She spoke softly, almost in a tone reminiscent of the manner she took with him after they had spent the night together. However, the young Warden’s visage spoke of a fate perhaps worse than death, and worse than wandering forever a pariah. “I am _conscripting_ you.”

Something of terror moved over Nathaniel Howe’s hard-angled face as he stood, defiant to belie his fear. “You mean to make me a Warden? That’s the strangest punishment I’ve ever heard.”

Saorise smiled to him coldly. “It is a fitting one. You will undergo the Joining. Should you die, then that is what the Maker has willed. If you live, then your life shall never be your own, again. Come.”

The pariah felt panic stir within him yet would not allow it to surface. What had the Blight done to the woman he once cared for so deeply? He followed, with no other choice, and prayed for death.


End file.
